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The Shrinkage of Gelatine

Abstract

IN the Kolloid-Zeitschrift for August my friend Mr. Emil Hatschek describes some beautiful and symmetrical figures which result from the slow drying and consequent shrinkage of variously shaped blocks of gelatine. A squat cylinder shrinks into a biconcave disc with deeply grooved periphery; a cube becomes a beautiful stellate figure, with apices corresponding to the eight corners of the cube, and with sides which sag in towards a more or less cubical central hollow. The former case shows a striking resemblance to a simple vertebra, such as that of a cartilaginous fish; and it is very curious to see how so simple a phenomenon as shrinkage converts a cylindrical block into the form of an “amphiclous” vertebra.

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THOMPSON, D. The Shrinkage of Gelatine. Nature 114, 576 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114576a0

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